A Tour Round the Garden

It's been raining forever
or at least that's how it feels.
It's nice to be on the inside looking out.
But when it comes to taking the Hounds out for their walk,
it isn't so nice.
It's a case of getting all our coats on
in an effort to protect ourselves from the constant rain.
The walks have become quite a chore today
as the rain has continued.
We've kept to the track where there is more room to walk
rather than ploughing through long wet grass
and ducking beneath wet branches.
Not nice when it drips down your neck!
In addition to the rain and coming back soaked,
It has got a bit colder,
my fingers are feeling the cold as I hold onto the leads.
It has been so wet even the Hounds have had second thoughts about going for a walk in it.
They don't like the rain.
In between their walks I attempt to dry off their coats ready for the next walk.
I have to change out of my wet trousers, that's how wet it is.

When we come back from a walk,
we come in the back way so we can stand on the terrace
sheltered from the rain.
The Hounds all stand in a row
waiting to go inside.
But not before they have
had a good rub down.
They just love that.
It makes the walk worthwhile.

So to try and forget the rain
I thought we would
take a tour round our garden.

The first photo (above) is a little pot hanging in the porch at the front door.
It was given to me by my sister
many years ago from one of her travels to Greece I think.

The photo below shows a boulder surrounded by grasses and some other plants.
It is in the middle of the lawn more or less.
There are lots of loose boulders in this area of Sweden and it is quite usual for them to be incorporated into the garden landscape.
Our garden like many Swedish gardens in Dalarna (that's the county)
is informal.
It suits us.
It is easy to manage
and pleasant to be in
or to look out onto.








The birds enjoy it too.






We don't often see the Thrush.
I've never seen it feeding with the other birds.
It's always hopping about the garden looking for worms when I do see it.
Here it's looking for food for it's young
I only ever saw one fledgling.
The Pied Wagtails I showed in an earlier post were successful
in having young.
I know because earlier last month
they were often on the eaves of the terrace
peering in through our back door.


Did I mention our lawn?


Can you believe that this is a lawn?
It's full of wildflower plants.
One of the things that I continue to marvel at in Sweden is how rich the flora and fauna is.
Some of the leaves that you can see in this photo are from the plant Ladies Mantle.
It is a cultivated plant in the UK and looks lovely after it's been raining and the drops collect on the hairy leaves.
Suitable for our current weather then.





This shrub stands in the middle but over to the right on the lawn.
My dad used to have lots of shrubs in his garden
and this would have been one of them.
It looks particularly nice on the lawn
with the branches sweeping over in arcs.
Even in the winter when it is dormant
it still looks lovely because of it's shape.



Peering through the branches
you can just catch a glimpse of the barn.
Can you see the giant sieve standing outside?
I've never seen one so large.
When we inherited the barn
there was some old farm bits and pieces left inside.











I showed this Peony in an earlier post.
It was in bud then but a lot shorter.
It has grown taller
but several weeks later
it is still in bud.
It's also covered in ants.
I don't know what they are after.
I will have to ask my friend
the ant expert.
There are lots of ants here.
I could write a post about them all to themselves.



Back to the more conventional.
A rose climbs round the dinining room window.
It looks lovely.
Unfortunately it doesn't have a fragrance.
I won't buy roses unless they do these days.

Walking on past the window
we round the corner of the house and there past some outhouses are
some wildflowers.
Can you see the forest in the background?

This is a Scabious

another cultivated flower that grows in the UK gardens.
Not sure what the insect is though.

Nor this one.

It is yellow and black like a bee or a wasp

but not.

If we go back to the front door

and turn to the left,

a path takes us to my workshop.
You might just catch a glimpse of the hammock there if you look closely.

You can also see the path to the left here which leads off into the forest.

A popular walk with the Hounds when it's not raining.

Here we are standing in front of the birdbath looking over to the forest.

We'll have to take that walk into the forest another time,

Mike is still away with the camera.

Well that was a nice way to get away from all the rain

and the wind which has started now.

Till next time!

Uniform of Greyness

Ullswater in all it's greyness.

Whenever I'm in the UK I like to try and at least get to The Lakes,

even if I don't manage a walk, (a proper one).

One of my favourite places is Ullswater. http://www.visitcumbria.com/pen/ullsw.htm

(I'll see if I can get our other computer to do the link properly, this one still won't highlight words!)

I was only in the UK for a week,

and the weather deteriorated following our walk, (see yesterday's post).

But I was determined to get into The Lakes.

So my sister and I took a trip on what turned out to be a very cold day.

At one point I pointed across the lake to where I thought I saw snow

of all things.

And right enough, on the local news that evening they reported snow having fallen!
Despite the cold and some rain,

we took a walk along the lakeside.

I thought it very considerate of the family in red to stand there

lending a bit of brightness to an otherwise grey pallor.

I don't know whether it was the cold numbing my brain as well as my fingers,

but the lake slopes...

I managed to get it right with this next one.

Sailing is quite popular on the lake.
I don't think I've ever been sailing,

boating yes,

but not sailing.

The cold didn't seem to bother this family.

But I did wonder whether these fishermen felt the cold.

This is one of the steamers that run regularly on the lake. http://www.ullswater-steamers.co.uk/index.shtml

I've travelled on them a few times, and no matter what the weather is like,

it is a lovely way to see the lake and the fells.

Despite the weather,

Ullswater is always worth seeing.

Just a shame I didn't have anymore half decent photos of the lake.

The English Countryside

Last month I flew over to the UK for a visit with family.
I stayed with my sister and her family in Cumbria.

The weather was beautiful and quite hot to begin with.
So the day after I arrived,

my sister and I decided to go for a short walk with our cameras.

She has a new camera too.

This mosaic is a compilation of some of the photos I took on that walk.
They are taken in Cumbria near the Eden Valley.

The countryside was beautiful.

Everything was lush.

The weather started out warm,

but got hotter.

The walk started out short,
but got longer.
We found some lovely long country lanes.
Where the air was filled with birdsong.





You have an idea from these two photos how far we walked.

We had lovely views from them into the distance.

We were enjoying the walk so much that

the half hour walk

turned into three hours!

I was keen to take lots of photos

as I remembered the last time I was in the UK

the weather was not conducive to taking good photos

and I was disappointed with the photos I brought back.
I think that made the walk longer

because the views were lovely eveywhere I turned.

I took this photo of a Blackbird feeding it's young

in my sister's garden the following day.

You can see that the weather has started to dull over a bit.

I'm not sure what the Blackbird is using as an impromptu feeding table.

I will leave you with some Sky Kisses

taken on our walk.

Top Dog

It is so quiet here.
The hounds have been fed and watered and walked,
not necessarily in that order,
and this is their quiet time.
Their tummies are full,
they are satisfied,
they are cool.
Literally.

It continues to be hot here,
too hot for me.
And what comes with hotness?
Yes, thunderstorms.

They have been rolling around Bun Mountain Cottage now
for the last few days.
In fact since Mike left on his travels
a few days ago.
When we get thunder here
we have been advised to unplug all our computer connections
otherwise we might loose connection altogether,
resulting in a call to the IT expert to come and
fix it.
So all day up to now
I have been unplugging the connections
rendering the computer
useless.
Until the thunder
goes away.
Which it has done now.
And it sounds so peaceful
after the really torrential rain earlier.
Fortunately the thunder wasn't quite so bad.
Not as bad as the other day.

Some dogs don't like thunder.
Rufus doesn't.
He was getting a bit worried
when the thunder was rumbling around the mountain,
(small hill),
for a few hours.
He got steadily worse.
The panic grew in his eyes.
Then there was an enormous clap of thunder right overhead!
During all this time he hadn't known
what to do
or where to put himself.
He'd come to me for comfort,
or I'd go to him and stroke him and talk quietly to him,
but he wouldn't,
couldn't,
settle.
When that great big clap of thunder happened overhead,
he shot over to the corner of the room
where Paddy was lying on his bed.

I've noticed before with dogs,
how they will try and get into a corner
during a thunderstorm.
Our previous greyhound,
Clive,
didn't like thunder.
He trembled when it thundered
and it was impossible to calm him.
He used to try and get himself into a corner.
I think he tried to hide from the thunder.
Well I think this is what Rufus was trying to do,
unless of course
he thought that
Paddy could save him from it!
Rufus was squashed in the corner
sat upright,
behind Paddy.
Paddy didn't move an inch,
he wasn't bothered at all about the thunder,
or having a companion on his bed.
Which is unusual,
as Paddy can be a bit of a grump
if anyone disturbs him when he's on his bed.

A bit later Rufus was sick.
Fortunately not on Paddy.
I've never seen a dog react in that way before.
It seems so out of character as well,
because
Rufus
likes to be top dog.
He's usually happy go lucky too.
I don't think we've seen him like that before.
Fortunately he didn't seem too bad earlier today
when it thundered.
Though he did join me in my bedroom last night.
I was just falling asleep
when the thunder started.
Rufus came
for some human comfort and reassurance.
He settled okay.


I wasn't going to write about Rufus or the thunder,
I was going to tell you where I went in June.
But I'll save that for another day.

Sometimes
you just have to
go with the flow.

Now, what photos shall I choose?

I know.
I have been trying to make photo mosaics for months now,
and was probably not feeling very confident about signing in to allow use of our photos.
But on return from my trip I played around with some of the photos and made a mosaic or two.
Here's one made of photos from that trip.
Walls seem to be the subject.

But where are they?

Midsummer Madness

Midsummer.
Swedish style.

I have been away from my blogging,
and my blogging friends for too long.
So before June ends
I thought I would call in
and end my
'Blogging Block.'
Well I'm sure bloggers can suffer from a writers block as well
don't you think?

Anyway, what better way to break the drought
than to celebrate the summer.
The long sunny days.
And the long light nights.
As I sit here in Bun Mountain Cottage with 59 minutes until midnight,
it is still daylight outside.
It is amazing!
Lovely.
And very welcome after the long dark winter.
So no wonder the Swedes like to celebrate it.


Everywhere there are wild flowers.
Everything has grown such a lot.


I've been away a couple of times in June,
and when I returned the first time
it was to grey wet weather.
Surprisingly I was returning from a sunny UK!

The second time I went away for a few days,
I returned the morning of Midsummer celebrations.
I travelled through some torrential rain to get home,
but the photos above were taken the following day
when the sun made an appearance.
And it's been back with a vengeance ever since.
It's been so hot!
My friends in hot climes,
I sympathise with you now.
I don't know how you put up with constantly hot, hot weather.
I want to melt!
The Hounds find it hard too!

Here they are all eager to have a drink after a slow, leisurely walk .

And here Jewel is having a shower to cool her down.

Paddy has had his and is feeling happier for it.

Jewel doesn't look so happy here does she?

And sure enough,

a few days later when Mike went to get the hose,

she slipped her lead and ran off!
'Enough of that,' she thought.
But we did get her back.
Mike had to go and collect her,
again,

from our neighbour,

who kindly rang to say that she was up at her house frightening all the cats!

Well Mike is off on his travels tomorrow for 2 weeks.

So I expect to be on the computer more regularly.

Except he's taking the camera with him!

Well we'll see what tomorrow brings.

I do have some photos from my travels.

Perhaps we'll have a look at some of them.


Thank you to all of you who have enquired after me.

Maybe I'll have some explanations tomorrow.

Back on Track

We haven't seen this chap for a while.
But he was back again today.
Just like me!
I haven't been blogging for a while or even visiting any of my friends here.
But that will change.
We have been having some changes here too.
I showed you the Daffodils that were about to flower.
Well here they are flowering.
It seems as though they've been this way for weeks now.
They just stay the same.

The trees are coming into their own glory now.
This is a view that greets us from our front door.

These Wood Anemones can be seen growing wild all over the place,

but these particular ones are underneath one of the shrubs in the garden.

Here is a pink one.

There are even some garden flowers showing themselves now,

or just about to,

like this Peony.

I don't know the name of this flower.

Or this one.

This is a Dicentra growing underneath one of our windows.

Mike put the hammock up a few weeks ago when the weather turned nice.

But the first time I tried it the rope gave way!

Luckily it was low to the ground.

It's still awaiting repair, otherwise I think I would have been making use of it!

We have had some lovely weather at times.

The nights are drawing out.

Tonight when we walked the hounds (at 22.30), the sky was still blue above us,

a star was twinkling,

and a bird was calling.
Bliss!